Tightening the cylinder heads on your 2001 Dodge Intrepid is a more involved process than you might think. Each head has its own torque pattern, and not all of the 11 bolts are treated equally. The front of the head -- which is the more square end -- has three bolts that are not tightened until the very last step.
Look at the right-side -- passenger-side -- head with the front of the head toward your right. Ignoring the three front bolts, number the bolts 1 through 8 in a clockwise sequence starting from the upper left. The torque pattern is: 6, 3, 2, 7, 5, 4, 1, 8. Look at the left-side -- the driver-side -- head with the front of the head toward your left. Again, ignore the three front bolts and number the bolts 1 through 8 in a clockwise sequence starting from the upper left. The torque pattern is: 7, 2, 3, 6, 8, 1, 4, 5.
Tighten the eight bolts in sequence in four stages. In the first stage, tighten them all to 35 foot-pounds. In the second stage, tighten them all to 55 foot-pounds. In the third stage, tighten them again to 55 foot-pounds. In the fourth stage, turn each bolt an additional 90 degrees. The last step is to tighten the three front bolts to 21 foot-pounds, tightening the middle bolt first, then the upper bolt and finally the lower bolt.
Make sure the head bolts aren't stretched before you reuse them. Lay a straightedge against the shaft of each bolt and make sure all the threads touch it. If some of the threads don't quite touch, toss the bolt out and get a new one. If in doubt, use new bolts.
